Well it has been a crazy and stressful year to say the least. Sometimes life happens and we get sidetracked with extra unanticipated circumstances. Fun jobs get put on the back burner for another day and start to collect dust. The good news is we did get a few camping trips in since the last post (plus one failed attempt in the winter). Grrr Icy roads are bad news. Nothing like driving three hours to get to a campsite only to find that the last mile is covered in a sheet of ice and not to be attempted by any sane person at the hour of 8PM in a town that rolls up at 5PM apparently. Better safe than sorry of course.So anyway on to the camping and big news at the end so keep reading. Three camping trips were made in the last year (not near enough!) plus a trip to Tennessee. <<<kind of a disaster with the dog on 4th of July. I'll just leave it at that. We chose Tuscarora State Forest all three times. Someone in charge there really knows what they are doing. There are almost 100 designated camping locations scattered throughout the ENTIRE FOREST. That means Total. Peace. and. QUIET. There is no other campsite close by....aaahhhhhhhhh. :) What a peace of heaven. The first spot we tried was very easy to get to. It was about 1 mile of a paved two lane road.

This was an over night with just Riley this time. Good quality time with the RyGuy for Memorial Day weekend, 2015.

The next trip was in July with all of us. We tried a different spot that looked interesting.

To our surprise, because I did not see this on the forest map, this spot was right at the start of a walking trail.

It wasn't much at first, but the longer we walked the prettier it got. And then we even found a cool stream. We also found a snake that was not at all impressed with us taking a hike in his back yard. So he told us to get lost. Rachel just about stepped on him walking up on him sunning himself so maybe that was it. (Note to self: HIKING BOOTS!)But we really enjoyed this site. On the downside? Quite a trip to get to it. Miles of one lane gravel road that several times had a steep drop off down one side. GPS was also spotty back here, most often we are able to get in but for some reason it doesn't work on the way out. I learned to bring regular maps too. Yes, they do still make those old things. Ha!

Third trip: Back to the first spot. We were so close to going for two nights but we saw the return of THE GREMLINS. And why was that??? Well, I am sorry to say that we have a disease for which there is no known cure. I thought the camper bug went into remission when we bought the pickup camper. It was quiet for a little bit but then Jason had to get a new truck for work. A Chevy 1 ton Dually diesel *swoon*. Oh, and that means it can carry a LOT more weight. Now we were looking at campers with slides for a bit more room :) Found a great deal and had to take it of course! But, as always..have to work out the gremlins!

Say hello to the new (2006) Lance 1181! The last truck/camper combo were referred to as Bonnie and Clyde. I call the new set Beauty and the Beast! So back to the first Tuscarora spot we went for our first venture out with them. A snafu with the wiring for the lights cost us a night, but that ultimately worked out for the better as the lp sensor decided to wake us up at 3AM to let us know the batteries were too dead to start the generator. :) What fun! We still had a good time. And no, it was not a disaster because we always carry a booster pack for such a gremlin.

Rearview Mirror: The Good, The Bad, and The UglyThe Good: Tuscarora State Forest, the new screen room, a bigger camper and truck!The Bad: Unhappy snake, 3AM alarms, wiring plug in for the lightsThe Ugly: Still dealing with the camper disease!!!

So, I'm a little behind because we've squeezed two trips since my last post. Life has been a little hectic and we still haven't been able to enjoy that elusive ENTIRE weekend getaway. Here is a tip for other RVers out there: If you have a Samsung microwave circa 2003 PLEASE look at their website for a list of recalls!! Apparently that gremlin turned out to be a bad keypad, and some were turning themselves on by themselves. (ours was just stuck on saying "2" but who knows?" we leave it unplugged when not in use to be safe.) Samsung is graciously sending us a check for $250.00 if we kill the nukerator. Not bad for 12 phone calls, 5 non-english speaking customer service reps, and about 42 minutes hold time total. Anyway... On to the second trip! We stayed close to home and went to a nice little State Park. French Creek State Park has about 35 miles of hiking trails, and hiking happens to be our favorite pastime while camping. We just put new heavier duty tires and shocks on, so it was like a test drive too. Perfect. Other than being down by one camper, we were looking forward to this little jaunt.

We had a nice little spot, and I was impressed that the park was extremely clean. We were a little close to the bath houses, but other than a little extra foot traffic it wasn't horrible though I wouldn't stay in this spot again if I had a choice. The weather cooperated for us again, and we were treated to a gorgeous starry night. (I REALLY need to get a high quality camera if I am going to keep doing this. The cell phone isn't cutting it)

There really were no incidents on this trip...I remain cautiously optimistic that the vacation gods have found someone else to pick on hahaha!

Michaux State Forest

I had been doing some research (heh...in all my spare time- is that why these trips feel so hurried and thrown together last minute?) and discovered that some of Pennsylvania's state forests allow for "dispersed camping". Our original plans for this trip were to head to the Poconos and check out the waterfalls at Ricketts Glen State Park, or Promised Land State Park. But then THIS happened:

Yep..a crazed cop-killing sniper decided to hide out in the general area, and the cops hadn't quite located him yet. *sigh*

We are in HIGH camping season here still apparently, and securing a decent spot last minute was proving to be a bit of a challenge. Until I found out about aforementioned dispersed camping that is. I called the forest ranger on Wednesday, got a camping permit for the weekend and we were good to go! .The kids even had a 1/2 day on Friday so we would be getting there in the daylight! TWO nights, NO campground!!!! Sadly however...those pesky gremlins decided to make another appearance.

Two little reading lights up in the bunk did not work, and it was bugging Jason to no end. So he decided to just take a peek and see if he could find out what was going on. Suddenly the whole circuit they were on decided to go out, and we were really left scratching our heads yet again. Almost half the interior lights were not functioning (fuses ok, breaker ok of course) and we couldn't trust traveling with not knowing the issue. We broke the bad news to the kids and once again Friday night was spent grumbling and throwing fits, and that was just me. But, as usual, Jason kept at the mystery. Friday night he found a hidden wire, cut and just hanging loose to create havoc, and another gremlin was extinguished- bright light! bright light!.

So we decided it would be better to leave Saturday morning. Neither of us like to arrive at a new camping spot during the dark since the time we almost ended up in a lake at midnight. Another camping horror story for later....

The ride to Michaux was just beautiful! We were treated to scenes from wine country, and it was breathtaking. I could hardly keep up with picture taking. Every time we went around a turn or over a hill, more beauty laid itself out before us.

Did I mention it was Lucy's first camping trip?? I was pretty sure we were tempting fate! She hates being left behind but doesn't care for car rides much....

We stopped by the ranger's office to pick up our permit, and headed through the forest to find our spot.

The directions we got read a little bit like what Chevy Chase gave the movers in the movie Funny Farm, but after a wrong turn and a couple of miles out of our way we found our spot for the night.Except we weren't thrilled when we pulled in. The campsite was a large field past a lot where ATVers can stage their equipment to hit the riding trails.This was the final weekend they were allowed to ride for the season. Five other parties were also camping on Piney Mountain Ridge for the night (two of which had dogs that instantly started barking at our intrusion). Jason and I looked at each other in disgust. Ummm..not what we were looking for. Ugh. We struggled with what to do. Leave? It was getting dark and we were tired. Try to find another campground nearby? Hahahaha- NO signal on the phones. We decided to suck it up and stay.First order of business, we needed to gather firewood from around the site. Campers may not bring wood from other areas because of the destruction caused by invasive insects. We take the rules very seriously, so Jason and the kids went hunting for downed and dead wood to burn. The neighbor to our one side graciously offered the wood he had ready, but would not need. (I love RV people, they're just like that) His dog even quit barking at us (whew!)We set up camp, and the kids roasted weenies on the fire. Riley was excited to use the long forks I bought for him because all I heard about for the two days before camping was "can we roast weenies on the fire?" Settling in a little (the neighbors to the other side turned out to be a LOT quieter that we thought they would be) we finally started to relax and enjoy!

The campsite:

Sunday was a lazy morning fire and a nice looooooong hike for about 2 1/2 hours. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone muttered "I'm SO glad we stayed!" myself included. We seemed to luck out again with picture perfect weather and the colors were just starting to turn, making our walk something new for us.

As we were coming back from our little hike, sad to be having to pack up already, we came back to about 5 lbs of stink bugs on the camper and truck. Ew, ok I'm ready to go! For some reason there were ridiculous amounts all of a sudden. Blech!We all agreed however:we would absolutely come back here. Even with the ATV crowd we had a great time! Lucy did great for her first trip and slept almost the whole way home.

Anyone who owns an RV would probably tell you that there is usually a "situation" for every trip. We've certainly had our fair share over the years. One of these days I will blog about our most unforgettable (and not in a good way) trip. It would just take up too much space right now...Our first trip in the new camper (Bonnie as Jason calls her- the truck is Clyde) was going to be a nice relaxing weekend down in Tennessee on Watts Bar Lake having some beers with the old man. The trip would be about 11 hours with a perfect halfway point in Virginia to stop overnight. Kids excited: check. Parents excited: check. Grandparents excited: check. As usual and right on time however, the gods of 'vacatious interruptus' started frowning on us and decided once again that a vacation for us just wasn't in the cards. We fought back bravely, with Jason staying up late trying to finish the A/C install (Hiccups? CHECK!) Seriously, taking out a tiny roof vent to drop an air conditioner in it's place would seem trivial for the mechanically inclined. HA! NOT when they use some kind of airplane glue when originally installing said vent. But we overcame that hurdle (amongst our youngest checking in on us every 10 minutes) only to have a big work issue blow up right before departure. It was one that would require Jason staying around Friday to finish up a job, and needless to say we were all pretty deflated. Score 1-0My solution do this dilemma was to find a more local place for our first trip and at least try to alleviate some of the disappointment for the kids' sake. (take THAT vacation gods!) Score 1-1 Doing some quick searching, I found what appeared to be a great state park just under 2 hours away. YAAAAY It's ON!

The vacation gods don't take kindly to being out-maneuvered, and I imagined them laughing maliciously as they threw a couple of gremlins at our new camper. Things seemed fine that Friday night, as I was loading up the fridge and stocking supplies for the trip. We were planning on leaving Saturday late AM and at least getting one night away. Suddenly the inverter started acting funny. The fan kicked on and off and on and off over and over. It appeared to be wigging out. Jason started pulling things apart in order to see what was going on. He checked fuses and connections, pulled out and read over manuals while I got on Google seeing if anyone had a similar experience. He did notice a loose connection at the battery. Good. After tightening it appeared that things acted normal. With a heavy sigh of relief, we told the kids the trip was back on. We were sitting in the thing getting ready to go to bed when suddenly the radio turned itself on. Then the microwave beeped. It said "2". Then it kept saying "2" until the display was full and wouldn't take any input from us. Then the inverter started doing it's new trick just to join in. *Facepalm* We threw our hands up and just went to bed at 1AM. Score 2-1Jason is very driven, and when faced with problem he's on it like a dog on a bone. By the time I woke on Saturday, he was already back out in the camper looking around some more. Lo and behold. Another loose connection was discovered,even worse than the first one. !!! This little $10.00 part right here, a battery kill switch. Not only was the connection loose, the switch was bad. It was the smoking gun we couldn't find the night before, and we started getting our hopes up again.

Jason bypassed the switch until we could get a new one installed and we were on yet again. The roller coaster ride was finally over! Score 2-2Locust Lake State Park turned out to be a gem for us. The nice gal in charge of making reservations let us drive in and pick the spot we wanted first. The spot they assigned was just too uneven. Saturday evening we made our fire and sat outside while we ate supper. After a couple of intense rounds of UNO we made our s'mores and relaxed in our lounge chairs taking in the forest views. Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.....

Sunday morning we woke up to a gentle rain casually tapping on the roof of the camper. The forecast didn't look wonderful, but we had already decided it would take a monsoon to keep us from hiking that day.

I made the usual camping breakfast of scrambled eggs, with the added little treat of cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven. Unfortunately, in my hurry to pack, I only brought along instant coffee. YUCK- Note to self: get a new coffee pot!!No matter, the skies actually started clearing and we went exploring the trails we were camped close to.

It does a parent's heart good to hear "THIS IS AWESOME!!!" 100 times during a trip, no matter how small or simple. The kids will definitely remember our first outing with the new camper, I'm just thrilled the memories will be fond ones! Score: 2-3 We won this round!

It was a little sad to see our motorhome go down the road with it's new owners, all smiles and ready to embark on their new journey of making memories. This was our third RV as a family and we were pretty attached. She had everything, even a washer and dryer for goodness sake. We actually lived in her comfortably for a month while we remodeled our second home. I cooked a full Thanksgiving dinner in there (from scratch I kid you not!) one year down in the Outer Banks.

Something happened when we moved though.. We upgraded from a 1/2 acre lot in town to almost six acres "in the country". The neighbors weren't really visible to us. We put in a hot tub and a pool. Our lot is private, yet the view is stunning, with a ridge in the background and trees surrounding us pretty much all the way around. It was like heaven, room to breathe and relax Bonfires were a common weekend activity to unwind from a long stressful week. Camping in amongst hoards of other people suddenly lost it's appeal.

We came to the realization that we were just letting our vacation on wheels sit around. Not so good for her. A bus that size has limited places to go camping in, and to get the best spots, one has to plan far in advance. Not so easy for us. Up for sale she went, and we were shocked when she sold instantly. After some tears over a tough choice, I got over it and took comfort in the fact that our baby was in good hands.....But I couldn't imagine not being able to camp at all, because when the RV bug bites it bites hard! I love the outdoors and all nature has to offer. The sights, smells, noises- tranquility that can't be found anywhere else in my opinion. We had quite a few discussions on what to do next. We were leaning towards a fifth wheel trailer and even had a favorite brand and style picked out. On the plus side they are a LOT less maintenance than a motorhome. They can also take a little more neglect. Still, it didn't seem like a good fit. We feared we would be in the same boat with a big lug to take care of, not getting used except as a place for out-of-town family to crash.One day Jason suggested we look at pickup campers. NOPE. No..no..nooooooooooooo! Too small after being in something so large and roomy. I mean really?? Hahaha! Knee-jerk reactions are a funny thing. If you stick with them you could miss out on a lot of things. I couldn't help but be a bit curious about the little campers, so I decided to do some of my own research. I looked at blogs, an online magazine just for pickup campers, and of course RV Trader. I searched forum posts for hours. The more I read, the more I was becoming hooked on the notion of going just about anywhere the 4WD truck could go. I found out about boon-docking aka "dispersed camping". The desert...the beach..the forest..NOT limited to commercial campgrounds. That was it. The thing missing from our camping trips. More nature..less parking lot. It didn't take long to locate our new camper. We found a Lance 1010 with all the options we wanted (almost!) and put a deposit on it over the phone.